The NCAA Division I Board of Directors have approved the proposed plan of holding all fall championships in the spring, the organization announced Tuesday.
The plan had been approved by the Division I Council last week, and had also been supported by the Division I Presidential Forum.
The board had first redirected the D1 governance structure to pursue a plan to move the fall championships to the spring last month.
The affected sports include men’s water polo, along with men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball. The plan for these sports was developed by the Division I Competition Oversight Committee in conjunction with the sport committees.
The plan for the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) was created by the Division I Football Oversight Committee in conjunction with the FCS committee. It’s also worth noting that the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is not an official NCAA competition and doesn’t apply here.
“The plan sent to us by the Division I Council provides the maximum number of opportunities to fall student-athletes to participate in NCAA championships while still being fiscally responsible,” said acting board chair Denise Trauth, president at Texas State. “We look forward to the spring, understanding things will look a little different but knowing the competitions will be just as meaningful as in normal circumstances.”
Among the changes for the sports will be reduced bracket size, with 75% capacity filled for team sports and 16 instead of 24 teams in the FCS.
For men’s water polo specifically, the bracket size has been reduced to six teams, with the first regular regular season competition set for January 16 and the championships to occur March 19-21. Normally seven schools advance to the championships.
Football is the only one of these sports whose first competition is at each institution’s discretion; all others occur in either January or February.